Asylum Seeker and Refugee Mental Health Trainees Network
We are excited to announce a series of talks from February 2022 to launch a new trainees group affiliated to the RCPsych Working Group for Asylum Seekers and Refugees.
We hope this can be a group for trainees of all levels who are interested in learning more about working with this population. Do feel free to share this invitation with colleagues, we would welcome anyone in their medical career from medical students to consultants.
Upcoming Talks in 2022
Wednesday, 2nd February at 6 -7:15pm – Protecting Refugees: What does it all mean?
We are thrilled to invite Professor David James Cantor, founding Director of the Refugee Law Initiative, and Professor of Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies, to give our opening talk. We wanted to start outside our own medical and psychiatric field which, while important, can sometimes bring only narrow offerings. Join us for an introduction to some of the international legal frameworks that help to support and protect refugees and asylum seekers.
Professor David Cantor is founding Director of the Refugee Law Initiative and the Internal Displacement Research Programme at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Trained originally as a social anthropologist, Professor Cantor has worked as a practitioner, including as Legal Officer for the Refugee Legal Centre and Senior Advisor to the UNHCR. Professor Cantor researches on refugees, IDPs, displacement, disasters and conflict. He has published seven books/special issues and 30+ journal articles and book chapters, organised over 100 RLI conferences and workshops and secured research funding for 20+ projects. In 2017–2018, he won the prestigious Times Higher Education Award for Research Project of the Year. He jointly runs the distance learning MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies.We are thrilled to invite Professor David James Cantor, founding Director of the Refugee Law Initiative, and Professor of Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies, to give our opening talk. We wanted to start outside our own medical and psychiatric field which, while important, can sometimes bring only narrow offerings. Join us for an introduction to some of the international legal frameworks that help to support and protect refugees and asylum seekers.
Thursday, 3rd March at 6 -7:15pm – The Work of Medical Justice and Medicolegal Report Writing
Medical Justice is a charity that supports those who are held in indeterminate immigration detention in the UK. They offer training and support to volunteer doctors, including psychiatrists, in writing medicolegal reports for detainees to assist in their asylum claims and challenge medical mistreatment in detention. We will hear about their work, and how psychiatrists can be involved.
Dr Rachel Bingham is the clinical advisor at Medical Justice, and has done medico-legal assessments for people in immigration detention centres since 2010. She also works in the NHS as a GP. At Medical Justice, her role is to provide training and support to volunteer doctors providing independent visits and assessments for people in immigration detention centres, and writing medical-legal reports.
Dr Sophie Quarshie is a consultant in Liaison Psychiatry, in the North East of England. Her interest in the Mental Health of Asylum Seeker and Refugees started as a core trainee at the Maudsley, where she saw the detrimental impact that the asylum process can have on people. She has been volunteering for Medical Justice for several years and finds it thoroughly inspiring work.
Talks further ahead will include subjects such as access to healthcare for asylum seekers and refugees, trauma-focussed therapies, talks from those with lived experience of the UK asylum system, reflecting on other ways to be involved as a trainee such as research, and hearing from other charities and organisations where psychiatrists are needed.
Do sign up via the Eventbrite links above, and feel free to get in touch with us if you would like to join our WhatsApp group – send an email to us at ASRpsychtrainees@gmail.com with your phone number.